Welcome to the Rose Mansion - Chapter 124
Only after he had screamed until his voice was completely gone did Alan collapse, utterly spent.
His vacant eyes wandered, unable to find a place to settle.
Richelle approached Jacqueline’s lifeless, swaying body. A folding ladder stood nearby, likely used to tie the rope to the chandelier.
With her mind feeling utterly blank, Richelle tried to think of a way to lower Jacqueline’s body without causing it to fall and break upon impact like a fruit falling from a tree.
A distant sound of crying hummed in Richelle’s ears. It was the sound of the twins holding back their sobs. Richelle slowly closed her eyes, then opened them again.
“I’ll hold Mother. Can you untie the rope?”
A shadow loomed closer, and a rough, hoarse voice spoke from behind. Richelle turned around in surprise.
“Alan.”
“Hurry.”
Alan embraced his mother’s body, lifting her upward. Without another word, Richelle climbed the folding ladder.
With both of them working together, they quickly managed to untie the rope from Jacqueline’s neck and laid her body gently on the floor. Alan fetched a thick blanket and wrapped his mother’s body in it.
He stood there, staring blankly at the shrouded figure.
Richelle couldn’t bring herself to call his name or ask if he was alright. She stood a short distance away, watching him with concern.
Alan, who had stood frozen like a broken clock for what seemed like an eternity, finally moved his lips.
“…I.”
“What?”
“I need to go.”
He roughly wiped his face with his hands.
“I have to take Mother to the fifth garden. That’s where all funerals of the Otis family are held.”
“Oh…”
“If we wait until morning, they will move Mother’s body… and I can’t let that happen. I can’t let her be treated like that, not even in death.”
Richelle recalled the image of the roses violently subduing Jacqueline. They wouldn’t handle the body with care.
Richelle sat down beside Jacqueline.
“I’ll go with you.”
“…Alright.”
They carefully adjusted the blanket around Jacqueline’s body. Just as they were about to discuss how to move her, a small voice interrupted.
“Um, Alan?”
The twins, who had stopped crying, timidly approached.
“Can we come too?”
“Please… let us.”
Though they couldn’t even meet his eyes, the twins pleaded with him, their voices filled with desperation. Alan’s cold, empty gaze suddenly turned icy.
“Get lost.”
“Alan…”
“How dare you, you little monsters. You have no right to be here. It’s because of you that Mother…!”
“…”
His icy rage, seething beneath the surface, came crashing down on the young roses like a bolt of lightning. The twins bit back their tears and retreated.
Richelle gazed at their tear-streaked faces.
The little roses…
They were sinister beings that had taken over the Otis twins’ bodies. They had brought Jacqueline to despair. Clearly, they weren’t human.
And yet, they were different from the other roses, in some strange and ambiguous way.
Suddenly, Richelle remembered something a maid had once said to her.
—They’re not true roses yet. They haven’t fully taken over. They weren’t qualified, but they got lucky because they fit the conditions he wanted.
The twins were unnaturally devoted to Jacqueline, as if they were real children, longing for their mother’s love.
Not playing at being human, but as if they truly believed they were family… as if they were truly her children.
“….”
Richelle knew what she was about to say was madness. She knew it was something that could earn her a slap. And yet, she opened her mouth and spoke.
“Alan… what if we brought the twins along?”
Alan’s fiery gaze, which had been locked on the twins, now shifted to her.
He stared at her for a long moment before speaking.
“Are you pitying them?”
“No, it’s not that. Earlier, when I came here, the twins helped me. When they were with me, the other roses didn’t approach. It might be safer to move your mother with them around.”
Richelle swallowed nervously as she finished speaking. She waited, but the coldness in Alan’s eyes didn’t fade.
Suddenly, Richelle realized something. Even before they had grown so close, Alan Otis had never looked at her with such an expression.
His eyes were full of disappointment and hurt, swirling like a storm. A giant’s rage, barely contained.
Alan bit his lip and spoke in a low voice.
“You know, I wouldn’t be wrong to get angry at your suggestion.”
“…I know.”
“Then explain yourself. What were you thinking? Have you grown attached to those monsters?”
Richelle clasped her hands together. Her palms were damp with cold sweat. She knew she had angered him, and now she had to explain herself.
Her trembling lips barely managed to form words.
“If those children weren’t here today, we wouldn’t have known what happened to Jacqueline. So, I couldn’t help but keep watching them. And then…”
“Keep going.”
“I remembered something I heard a long time ago… That they weren’t true roses. That they hadn’t fully taken over.”
“…What?”
His voice was incredulous. Richelle hurried to continue.
“It makes sense for you to be angry, Alan. They’re not human.”
“…”
“But if, by any chance, even a small part of your siblings’ souls remains within them…”
If that part of their souls was what created their genuine affection for Jacqueline…
“Then maybe… maybe they deserve to be there to see your mother’s final journey, even if just a little.”
Alan’s sky-blue eyes wavered like the stormy sea under a rain-filled sky.
